I often ask the same question about some Aboriginal Peoples in Southern australia , they too often get mistaken for people from the middle east , with brown skin and eyes and dark wavy hair , having noted how the Dingo looks very much like the Canaanite dog I assume a very long time ago ancient traders spread their genes everywhere they traded ,http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canaan_Dog ,http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dingo

Today, the
most common theory is that the dingo arrived in Australia about 4,000
years ago, because the oldest known fossils of dingoes were estimated to
be about 3,500 years old , and as I note many words shared in the Arabic and Aboriginal peoples languages of Sth australia , Im convinced there were so called Phoenicians trading with Australia at the time the Dingo arrived , when they roamed to seas several thousand years ago that also left behind SOME language

Based on fossil, molecular, and anthropogenic
evidence, it is assumed that Australian dogs called dingoes once might have had a widespread
distribution. These ancient dingoes would have associated to nomadic
hunter-gatherer-societies and later with the rising agricultural
centers. It is further assumed that they would have been tamed there and
were then transported to various places in the world. Dingo-findings
from Thailand and Vietnam are regarded as the oldest findings, which
have been estimated to be respectively as old as 5,000–5,500 years. The
age of findings from the highlands of Indonesia vary between a maximum
of 5,000 to (in most cases) 2,500 to 3,000 years.

Heh, well not all of them look the same though I see your point. Since I live in the region I can tell you there are many Arabs who have light skin. Arabs in general have lighter skin than Indians (at least the Indians who come here). I've seen many Indians who have green eyes though.

I often ask the same question about some Aboriginal Peoples in Southern australia , they too often get mistaken for people from the middle east , with brown skin and eyes and dark wavy hair ,

Some Gulf might be distantly related to Aboriginal Australians. Australoid people left Africa in the very distant past and traveled along the Indian ocean. They currently live in Australia (of course) but also in south India, Sri Lanka and a few in Pakistan. There are also very small numbers of Australoid descended people in Somalia and Yemen.

Originally posted by Arab

Heh, well not all of them look the same though I see your point. Since I live in the region I can tell you there are many Arabs who have light skin. Arabs in general have lighter skin than Indians (at least the Indians who come here). I've seen many Indians who have green eyes though.

Just out of curiosity, do bedouin arabs have dark or light skin? Also what about the small ethnic group in Oman whose native language is not Arabic. I cant remember their name. Do you know if they are indigenous to the area like the Arabs are/

Just out of curiosity, do bedouin arabs have dark or light skin? Also what about the small ethnic group in Oman whose native language is not Arabic. I cant remember their name. Do you know if they are indigenous to the area like the Arabs are/

Most of them have dark skin. And I think you're referring to the Mahra, who live mostly in Yemen and also in Oman. Their language, Mehri, is in a different classification of Semitic languages, the South Semitic group.

The royal families of most Arab gulf countries are from Bedouin tribes, but many people in eastern Arabia are Baharna, which is an ethnic group of non-Bedouin Arabs. Unlike nomadic Bedouins, these were mostly sedentary farmers and they are Shi'ites. They mostly have dark skin like Bedouins. Regarding marriage, there is a tradition among Bedouins, especially for women, that you should only marry people from your tribe. But many so called "Arabs" in this region are actually descended from immigrants who came here from Iran and other places in the past few hundred years, which could explain the difference.

Just out of curiosity, do bedouin arabs have dark or light skin? Also what about the small ethnic group in Oman whose native language is not Arabic. I cant remember their name. Do you know if they are indigenous to the area like the Arabs are/

Most of them have dark skin. And I think you're referring to the Mahra, who live mostly in Yemen and also in Oman. Their language, Mehri, is in a different classification of Semitic languages, the South Semitic group.

Thanks for the information. I have a few more questions if you do not mind.....

Since nomadic bedouin are probably far less likely to have intermarried with other groups to large degrees, do you think Arabs were originally darker complected than they are today?

Also, I am interested in earliest human migrations from Africa. Have you noticed if any of the nomadic Bedouin have Australoid features? Please keep in mind that not all Australoids are as dark complected as Australian Aboriginese. For example the Ainu in Japan are lighter.

I think their skin color was the same as today. Some medieval Muslim scholars such as al-Jahiz pointed out that Arabs had lighter skin than Ethiopians. And when I said Bedouins have dark skin I didn't mean dark like Africans. Their skin color is comparable to north Indians. It is made even darker from exposure to the sun.

I'm not sure about Bedouins being Australoid. According to wikipedia Australoid features are a large brow ridge and large, portruding jaws. But I haven't seen these features on anyone in the region. Arabs usually have convex "Roman" noses unlike the broad noses of Aborigines or Africans. People with very dark skin are probably descended from slaves. I didn't know the Ainu were australoid though, that is interesting...

Many people from Yemen have African ancestry as they have very dark skin, but in isolated mountain villages the people have much lighter skin and even green eyes, which suggests the original people of the region had light skin.

Thanks for the inforamtion. I guess Australoids have essentially disappeared from the Middle East with the exceptions of a very small number of partial australoids in Somalia and Yemen. Though they were among the first to leave Africa, they seem, to have been overwhelmed everywhere but Australia.

Originally posted by Arab

Arabs usually have convex "Roman" noses

Does this feature become less prounounced in Iraq? From what I have seen on T.V. and from the few Iraqis that I have met (mostly Chaldean minority), the Iraqis seem to have more rounded faces and "softer" features. Is this impression correct?

Originally posted by Arab

I didn't know the Ainu were australoid though, that is interesting...

In the 18th century, they were originally classified as an isolated caucasoid group. This was changed to Australoid. The are indication that the aboriginal inhabitants of Japan were Australoids. The far more numerous Emeishi (metal using civilization related to the Ainu) were Australoid but were overwhelmed by Asiatic Japanese in the early Middle Ages. A few Japanese from villages in north east Honshu are said to have some australoid features even today.

Does this feature become less prounounced in Iraq? From what I have seen on T.V. and from the few Iraqis that I have met (mostly Chaldean minority), the Iraqis seem to have more rounded faces and "softer" features. Is this impression correct?

Well, in the Levant area and Fertile Crescent in general you will find some people with lighter skin, light eyes, soft features etc. Unlike further south in the Arabian peninsula, this area was ruled by many, many peoples and it is also a crossroad between Europe and Asia and thus there is a lot of diversity and more ethnic groups. So, you could find one person who looks like a northern European, and another person who looks like an Indian or Central Asian.

Thanks for the inforamtion. I guess Australoids have essentially disappeared from the Middle East with the exceptions of a very small number of partial australoids in Somalia and Yemen. Though they were among the first to leave Africa, they seem, to have been overwhelmed everywhere but Australia.

Gulf Arabs many look like North Indians or Iranians who are the lightest in south Asian countries some look east Mediterranean or Italian and Spanish people I'm a gulf Arab ,here's a video showing indigenous Arabian peninsula people or native gulf Arabs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=If9hItKSHCs

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